


Nothing Else Than Now | "The Bells Before the Battle" Remix

by stellarparallax



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 14:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19134313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: Keith released Shiro’s jacket but he was still staring into his eyes. It was as if he was trying to commit every detail, every eyelash, to memory. The gravity of the situation didn’t come to him as a surprise, but he still wasn’t ready to be apart from Shiro. Not again.“We have to—”“A little longer… please.”“There will never be enough little longers. Keith, we have to go. I’m sorry.”Keith and Shiro get married right before a battle with Lotor, but things don't turn out the way they expect.





	Nothing Else Than Now | "The Bells Before the Battle" Remix

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Bells Before the Battle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13266669) by [Misttiique](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misttiique/pseuds/Misttiique). 



Keith took a deep breath, then another, desperate to stop the nervous impulses ricocheting throughout him. 

He never expected to ever get married. It was always a thought at the back of his mind but with the war going on… he was just trying to be realistic. But as he walked down the aisle past all of their friends, everything just went quiet as his focus narrowed to the man standing at the end of it. 

Shiro was wearing a glossy black tuxedo and he had his hair slicked back; exactly how Keith liked it. His grip around the bouquet tightened as he kept walking closer and closer to the makeshift altar. 

Shiro held his hand out as Keith arrived. As he took it, he realised that Shiro was trembling.

“You okay?”

“Better than okay. You look stunning,” Shiro whispered like a prayer.

“Well, you don’t clean up too badly yourself.”

Coran cleared his throat.

“Right,” Keith laughed. He brought Shiro’s hand to his lips and kissed it. Then they both stepped forward towards the altar together. 

“Dearly Beloved,” Coran said resonantly, “We are gathered here today to bear witness to the union of Takashi Shirogane and Keith Kogane in marriage. A wise man once said that the best kind of love is the kind that awakens the soul--”

Shro’s eyes narrowed. “Are you… are you quoting Nicholas Sparks?”

“I may have found a copy of his delightful book in the Space Mall.”

“Oh my God.”

“... S-s-shall we continue?”

“Go on,” Keith snorted.

“In the Deca-Phoebs that I’ve known Shiro and Keith, I’ve watched their friendship, devotion and love bloom like a juniberry in spring. To be in the presence of their love is to be in the presence of hope amidst this terrible war.” He paused to wipe away a tear. “I’m sorry.”

Both Shiro and keith reached out to squeeze each of Coran’s arms. 

“We’ve all lost so much, and we will probably lose more tomorrow. But this marriage is a symbol of hope. Hope that after all of this is over we can someday have peace again. Let that carry you into battle and let it be the beacon at the end of it.” He took a deep breath. “You don’t know how proud I am of you. Shall we begin the vows?”

Keith nodded.

“Shiro, repeat after me. I, Takashi Shirogane.”

“I, Takashi Shirogane.”

Suddenly, the ground beneath them shuddered. The chairs that had been set up along the aisle shifted violently out of their orderly rows, causing a few of the younger Arusians to fall off them. Keith first turned to Shiro, then to all of their friends, eyes widened in abject horror. 

_ This couldn’t be happening _ , he thought.

“What’s going on?” Shiro asked, reflexively rather than actually expecting an answer.

“This isn’t Lotor,” Keith whispered.

“How do you—”

“Lotor is all about his word. He said that we have three days before we’re due to meet him on Arius. This is… someone else.”

“Haggar?”

“Maybe. Either way, we need to get to our—”

“Do you take each other?” Coran shouted above the chaos.

They both turned towards him. Then it all clicked. Coran was worried that they may never have another chance to get married again.

“I do,” Shiro said.

“In every universe, timeline, or life. I do,” Keith whispered, before pulling Shiro closer to him.

As they kissed, tears were running down their cheeks. They mourned the possibility of never having a normal wedding, a normal honeymoon, or even a normal  _ life _ . But these were the cards they were dealt and they could either play or fold. For them, that wasn’t even a choice. 

“I love you,” Shiro whispered when they finally broke apart.

“I love you. I always have.”

“Be safe out there.”

Keith released Shiro’s jacket but he was still staring into his eyes. It was as if he was trying to commit every detail, every eyelash, to memory. The gravity of the situation didn’t come to him as a surprise, but he still wasn’t ready to be apart from Shiro. Not again.

“We have to—”

“A little longer…  _ please _ .”

“There will never be enough little longers. Keith, we have to go. I’m sorry.”

Keith nodded, then ran towards the direction of his Galra gunboat. Not once did he look back.

 

* * *

* * *

 

“Kolivan to Keith and Regris, there’s a cluster of enemies approaching the Castle of Lions. Let’s take them out with formation A before they get any closer. Do you copy?”

“Copy that,” Regris responded immediately.

“Keith, do you copy?”

“Yeah,” his voice was still hoarse from crying, “Copy that.”

“Keith, I understand that this is difficult…” Kolivan’s voice softened.

“I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

He took a moment to recalibrate his frayed nerves from the shock of having his wedding ceremony ambushed. Or maybe he should have expected it seeing that it was how his life kept playing out—every triumph getting ripped away when inches from his reach. When Shiro proposed to him earlier that week, he thought that the wedding could have been the one thing that he was allowed to see to completion.

_ I should have known better _ , he thought.

But it wasn’t the time to dwell on what could have been.

An incoming blast exploded above his ship, barely missing the cockpit. He sat up straighter and clenched his jaw. He peered at the screen at the corner of his eye and noted the enemies coming his way. 

“Kolivan, there are too many of them and they’re coming too quickly. We need to pull them away from the route towards the Castle.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Our gunboats won’t be able to divert their path. We aren’t important enough to them. But if we attack their base…”

“Then they’ll try to keep us away. That will give Coran enough time to recharge the Castle. Let’s do it.”

It was the best solution that he could come up with. The fact that it also meant that he would be moving in the opposite direction from Voltron was simply a bonus. Whoever it was that planned the attack had come in guns blazing with this monster of a ship that put Lotor’s Sincline ships to shame. According to Allura, there was something strange about the energy that it was imbued with. It felt familiar, Altean, but there was something corrupt about it that she couldn’t place her finger on. “If you think of Altean magic as something that brings life, this too brings life but not in the same way,” she said. 

Needless to say, the team was struggling to fend it off, and that was a fight that would not have been productive for Keith to watch. He couldn’t help them win the battle if he was too focused on protecting Shiro. But in his gunboat that was built for speed and evasion, he would have only gotten in the way.

The three Galra gunboats twisted towards the base where they saw the enemy’s fighter ships come from. Gradually, they were able to pull more and more of the fighter ships away from their path towards the Castle. But how they were going to defeat all of them between the three of them was something that they hadn’t had the time to plan for. Those ships may not have been as fast as their gunboats but they were larger and definitely had stronger weapons. 

The first fighter ship opened fire at Regris’s gunboat. Regris pulled over to the side, swerving gracefully away from the blast, but he didn’t get out of it unscathed. The tip of one of his wings had been ripped off, which left him a little unbalanced. That took a whole host of formations out of their arsenal.

“Kolivan, Regris, do you trust me?” Keith said.

“Of course,” Regris said.

“With my life.”

“Then, follow my lead.”

Instead of moving haphazardly like before when they were trying to confuse and scatter the fleet, they synchronised their paths in a V-shaped flight formation with Keith front and centre. They headed to the enemy base, speeding up faster and faster as they came closer. 

“Are they following us?” Keith asked.

“Yes. Now?”

Right as their gunboats were about to reach the enemy base, they braked abruptly and spun upwards. The fleet may have had larger ships but they clearly weren’t as agile. As they tried to stop, their forward momentum caused them to either crash into each other or spin out of control. Either way, they weren’t in any shape to engage in combat with the Marmorites.

“Good,” Kolivan said, “Now we go back to the Castle.”

As they headed back, a rush of worried thoughts flooded Keith’s mind. He wondered how Shiro was, how he was holding up on his side of the battle. And for just a moment, he held onto the hope that maybe this time, it would all work out.

 

* * *

* * *

 

“Kolivan!” Coran’s exuberant voice rang through the intercom. “Keith, Regris! I’m so glad that you’re all safe.”

“How’s the team?” Kolivan asked.

“It’s… It’s hard to say. They’ve defeated the enemy ship but…”

Keith knew exactly what that meant.

“Shiro?” he whispered.

No response.

“Hunk?” he called out. “Pidge? Allura? Lance?”

Still no response.

“Shiro?” his voice scratched, this time more desperately than before. “Shiro, please, please say something.”

“Keith, calm down.” Regris tried to reassure him.

“Shiro?” Tears were pooling in his eyes. “Shiro?”

“Keith—” Coran’s voice softened.

“No… no… We were— I was so close… I could have—”

“Keith, we don’t even know if there’s anything to worry about. It could be that the lions aren’t—”

“You don’t understand, Kolivan. The last time this happened… Shiro went away. For months. I… We were so close to being happy. Shiro, please… if you can hear me…”

The other three stopped trying to talk Keith down because anything they could offer him wouldn’t have helped. The boy was completely distraught and there was nothing that they could do or say that would take away the pain that he was feeling at the thought of losing someone he loved for a third time. All they could do was sit silently in their ships, hoping that Keith knew that they were there for him.

Suddenly, the sound of his sobs was interrupted by crackling static erupting from the intercom.

“Shiro?”

“Hello, sweetie.”

“God, Shiro, you scared the crap out of me.”

“So… the usual?”

“Shut up…” Keith shot back, one part anger five parts relief. “It’s so good to have you back.”

“There’s nothing in the world that could keep me away from you. Not forever.”

 

* * *

* * *

 

Shiro’s feet were on the floor of the hangar for barely a second before Keith scooped him up into a bridal carry. 

“Keith, what are you--”

“I’m taking you to a cryopod.”

“I know I said I hit my head a little bit, but I’m fine. Please, put me down.”

Keith stopped walking and his eyes flitted from side to side. Then, he started walking again.

“Keith!”

“I’m taking you to a cryopod.”

“Keith, will you just stop for a second and listen to me?”

Keith stopped and this time, he put Shiro down. “I’m listening.”

Shiro’s mouth gaped, then clamped shut. And if he was being honest, Keith was getting a tiny bit impatient. He knew that he was being overly cautious, but he had to be sure that Shiro didn’t have a concussion from the impact of getting thrown about in the cockpit of his lion. They had already gone through so much trying to stay together. He wasn’t about to let something simple like a head injury rip them apart.

Finally, Shiro spoke. “I’ve told you before that the cryopod can be a bit claustrophobic.”

Keith nodded.

“I mean, there were also flashbacks but… I can deal with that.”

Keith placed a hand on Shiro’s left bicep and squeezed gently.

“I just don’t want to spend my wedding night like that… alone.”

Keith brought his hands up and cupped Shiro’s face in them. Then he pulled himself up so that he could meet Shiro’s lips with his own. 

“Shiro,” he whispered in the tiny space between them once their lips parted, “I want you around for a long time. I just need to be sure that everything is okay with you. And it’s not just that… we still have that battle in three days. I’m sorry that I’m being so pushy but…”

“I know.”

“Besides, you won’t be alone. I’ll be there the whole time. In sickness and in health, isn’t that right?”

Shiro grimaced at the mention of the wedding vows that they didn’t get to recite to each other. “Enjoy the novelty of saying that while you still can. With me, it’ll probably get old real fast.”

“No such thing,” Keith laughed before kissing him on the nose. 

They walked towards the cryopod. They didn’t say much, but they shot each other glances that were quick but not at all lacking in affection. 

And as the door of the cryopod closed on Shiro and he drifted off into a medically-induced sleep, Keith hoped that he saw his palm planted on the glass and the ring on his finger glinting as a promise to always be there with him. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading till the end! Do feel free to scream at me [@artparallax](https://twitter.com/artparallax?lang=en) on twitter.
> 
> Also, check out Misttiique's writing [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misttiique/pseuds/Misttiique)!
> 
> As usual, I would really appreciate it if you left kudos and comments! <3


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